Nick Young hit a clutch three-pointer putting the Lakers up two, but left plenty of time on the shot clock for the Thunder to either tie or win the game. Too bad the final possession was a mess for OKC. Or rather for Russell Westbrook specifically. Russ hit four three-pointers in the fourth, which was absurd and fun at the time, but that last shot was completely unnecessary.

Russ scored 17 points in the fourth quarter and had scored 15 straight points late in the game. Though that’s very impressive, the Thunder can’t expect to win games playing 1 on 5. Look at the Lakers from last year and compare them to this year. Playing team basketball for 48 minutes works. Then again, not having Byron Scott as your head coach also works.

The Thunder roster has a lot of one-sided players that were intended to fit alongside two superstars. I won’t go down that rabbit hole, but that’s not the reason the Thunder lost tonight. The Thunder roster is far from perfectly tooled, but Russ has to make his teammates better in late game situations if the Thunder are going to have any sustained success this season. The Thunder didn’t play to their strengths tonight, but instead lost in a late game of trading baskets.

The Thunder can’t settle for outside looks when outside shots aren’t falling, they just don’t have that luxury. They lack the personnel to do that. The Thunder are currently leading the league in points in the paint per game, but it’s predictable for teams to crowd the paint and give Russ or whomever room to shoot. In the third quarter, Sabonis got back to back assists from Adams in the post. Big to big passing, it’s a beautiful thing. The Thunder have some good passers, but it’s too bad the Thunder rank last in the league at passes per game. OKC isn’t good enough at shooting to give them enough space to play to all their strengths. That’s the issue.Keep Reading…

The threat. Just the threat of a 3-point shooter can make this Thunder offense so much better. This was crystallized for me in one play in the 4th quarter of the Thunder’s 115-111 loss to the Pacers. The play was your basic big/small pick and roll with Russell Westbrook and Joffrey Lauvergne. With the pick set, Lauvergne’s man hedged a little too hard on Westbrook, and Lauvergne rolled down the lane. Westbrook hit him in stride and Lauvergne dunked it. Keep Reading…

After dropping four straight games, the Oklahoma City Thunder bounced back with two straight wins–the first, a slug fest against the Houston Rockets, and the second, a beat down of the Brooklyn Nets. Then, against the Indiana Pacers, the Thunder clawed back from a 15-point deficit in the third quarter to tie the game at 95 with just five minutes to go, but couldn’t get over the hump en route to a 115-111 loss.

THREE GOOD THINGS

Adams’s Free Throw Shooting. 58, 50, 58. Those are Adams’s free throw shooting percentages his first three years in the league. Seemingly out of nowhere, Adams has become one of OKC’s most accurate free throw shooters. Adams ranks second on the team with a percentage of 89%, just barely behind Alex Abrines (91%) on three times as many attempts. Keep Reading…

Russell Westbrook, great person: “There’s a spirit inside the gymnasium at Jesse Owens Park, at the corner of Century and Western in South Los Angeles. It’s not the fanciest building. The floor isn’t shiny. The walls aren’t covered in artwork. But when the people from the neighborhood squeaked their shoes across the court on Monday night, there was something much more irreplaceable in the room – a community.”

What’s going on with Steven Adams?: “The Thunder’s season started and much of the national talk (non-Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant related) was about Steven Adams. His postseason plus a preseason of impressive performances had multiple media outlets ranking him as a Top 50 NBA player. But rankings are subjective. Adams is just 23 and still with room to grow offensively. “For people to say ‘this is the expectation, he’s gonna be a 16 (points) and 10 (rebounds) guy now when that’s not who he’s ever been,” Thunder coach Billy Donovan said. “We need Steven to be who Steven’s always been. When he does that, it really impacts our team.” Through 14 games, he’s shown his acute passing and ability to guard multiple positions. But he’s also had a recurring hand injury, turnovers, and defensive lapses.” Keep Reading…

Remember on Friday when Royce left some tabs open for me to use in the Bolts? Here are the rest of them.

Kawhi and Steph and strobe lights: “With 20 seconds left in the third quarter of the young season’s biggest game, Gregg Popovich screams. He wants everyone out of the way so that Kawhi Leonard can go to work against Andre Iguodala. Leonard waits near half court as his teammates shuffle to the corners. Popovich walks two steps to his left, assuring himself a great view, then happily crosses his arms. Then he gives the go sign. Leonard begins, slowly walking toward one of the NBA’s most feared defenders with a loopy, hypnotic dribble through his legs. Once, twice — a third time. Leonard, a borderline MVP candidate a year ago, is known to excel at just about everything on the court except this. Regardless, this feels like taunting.”

Something about the Raptors: “THE RAPTORS WEREN’T even playing in Toronto — they were on the road, in Brooklyn, preparing for Game 6 of the opening round of the 2014 playoffs. But that didn’t stop great mobs of fans, like pilgrims, from trekking to Maple Leaf Square outside the Air Canada Centre. Leading up to Game 1, the mood had been so fevered that the team’s normally staid general manager, Masai Ujiri, had made an appearance and dropped a few F-bombs, for which he would later be fined. With the Raptors leading the series 3-2, and Game 6 presenting an opportunity to advance to the second round for the first time since 2001, the tension built. An all-out proxy war broke out between newspapers in Toronto and New York. During Game 5, the Nets Twitter account implored their fans to meet Toronto’s intensity. Maple Leaf Square, “Jurassic Park” to the Raptors faithful, was total pandemonium.” Keep Reading…

Let’s get one thing clear before we begin here. If you showed me a picture of the Thunder’s entire team, I would not be able to name the whole squad. And okay fine, since we’re in the spirit of confessing things, I’d also like to mention that this is my first game to watch in its entirety. I was invited to a Gilmore Girls watch party and, not one to ever miss a party, I had to watch all seven seasons. Honestly, I’m giving up valuable watching time tonight to write this so consider yourselves a high priority. So, keep those two things in mind when you read this piece of amazing literature.

Well the Thunder sure did start out hot, right? Wrong. Geez guys, hold on to the ball. Is this a game the Thunder should win? Need to win? I don’t know but Royce is always talking about that so I feel like I should know? Anyway, I was doing bedtime with Harrison during the whole first quarter so I kinda sped through it but our old friend Michael Kimball tweeted me the trash emoji so that can’t mean it was good.

Royce may or may not have called during the second quarter and so I may or may not have ended up not really totally watching it either. But Jon Hamm tweeted me a gif of Larry David basically saying “meh.” I’m thinking things are on an upward trend?

The third and the fourth quarter happened. You’ve been here before. They’re down X amount of points and then they cut the lead to like, 5 and all the sudden you’re thinking, “They could win this one.” So you get up to get a drink and when you come back they’re down 12. So then you’re thinking, “Maybe I could get half an episode of GG in.” Hmm… but wait! They’re only down 1 now! With 30 seconds to go! They’re gonna win! And then Russell Westbrook with a huge three! And you’re like, “I love the exclamation point!” And then…

OVERTIME. Russ is gonna lose his mind. Well he didn’t. But he did get another triple-double, his fifth of the season and that really is pretty incredible. Let’s move on to the notes. Keep Reading…

Over the past two games, the defense for the Oklahoma City Thunder has looked a lot more like the one that led the team to a 6-1 record to begin the season. They are limiting penetration and protecting the rim a lot better. But another thing that has greatly assisted the Thunder in winning these past two games has been the play of shooting guard Victor Oladipo. Keep Reading…